Aleris announced today that its rolling mill in Zhenjiang, China has attained qualification to supply aluminum aerospace plate to Boeing. This achievement establishes Aleris as a qualified supplier of aluminum plate from its Zhenjiang mill for use in the production of various Boeing aircraft.

Aleris' facility in Koblenz, Germany, has supplied aluminum aerospace plate to Boeing for decades. Aleris Zhenjiang, which opened in early 2013, was modeled after the Koblenz facility to meet the needs of both global and regional aircraft manufacturers by establishing a local supply of aluminum aircraft plate in Asia Pacific.

"The achievement of the Boeing qualification represents the final major milestone in our strategy to serve the global aerospace industry from our new facility in Zhenjiang, China," Steve Demetriou, Aleris chairman and CEO said. "We are proud of the plant's ability to produce high-quality aerospace plates that meet Boeing's rigorous specifications and look forward to serving Boeing from another strategically important location in a region that is projected to see significant growth in demand for new aircraft over the next several years."

In June 2014, Aleris announced the Zhenjiang plant's achievement of Nadcap accreditation, which allowed the company to move into the final stages of qualification with Boeing and other major aircraft manufacturers. Airbus, Bombardier and COMAC have also qualified the Zhenjiang facility and shipments of aircraft plate began at the end of 2014. Aleris Zhenjiang is one of the first facilities in Asia Pacific qualified to produce aluminum plate for the major global aircraft manufacturers.

Since opening in 2013, while pursuing the qualification process for aerospace plate production, Aleris Zhenjiang has been shipping orders to commercial plate customers globally. These products serve a number of technically demanding end uses including engineering, transportation, ship-building, and air separation units. As a pre-requisite for these end uses the Zhenjiang plant has also received approval from many certification societies such as TÜV, the American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas, Class NK, and Bureau Veritas to supply products into ship-building, silo, pressure vessel and other industries.